[funkymartyn]

At £499 these headphones appear expensive (even though I think they are worth all of that) but at £379 (Amazon UK) these are a steal IMO.

I’ve noticed that the ‘early’ versions of these (the March/April 2023 first out of the factory examples) had a degree of variance quality/sound wise but subsequent (slightly tweaked?) models are tonally right on the money. At least that’s what I have noticed (had an early model, then subsequent later model), though perhaps it’s just my ears or getting accustomed to the sound profile.

Anyway, the current price makes these such a bargain and well worth snapping up before Amazon reverts to the usual RRP.

Very true and if I hadn't already got plus happy with my mint. Hd580 , new type Hd600 and mint Hd660s. I would be onto Amazon right now. Lol

 

[fidgeraldo]

660S2

-28% €430.00

RRP: €599.00RRP

 

[Numa]

Listener 1 year with HD660S2 as my main headphone and really found a worthy upgrade: Focal Clear MG, I am really happy with it: I can actually listen to bass frequencies I never heard in songs before, soundstage is bigger and the impact of the sound is stronger, while keeping the smoothness with tamed highs, only losing to vocals not being so upfront and natural. Its been such a long time I got really impressed with a new headphone, since upgrading from HD650 to Sundara/HD660s2/Grado Hemp was not as noticeable.

I am happy with clear being the end game for me, unless Sennheiser releases a new headphone. I also own HD800s, it still has it uses, but Its fatiguing and its more song selective so they cannot be my daily driver. Still have to try the NDH30 though, and I wont buy any planar because they are too heavy for my neck.

 

[audiobile]

Got a pair of HD660S2 on Amazon when they hit £370.

Initially I was underwhelmed. (Spoiler alert, these headphones are fantastic, I’m an idiot)

Bass was better than the HD6XX, imaging was very impressive, and they really brought out the micro detail of many songs. But they just sounded metallic and shrill or grainy on many tracks.They sounded like the HD6XX with cranked worse “broken” sounding treble, and better bass. Vocals sounded shittier, surprisingly bad at times. Did I get a faulty pair I thought to myself? Some songs sounded “bloomy” or honky like there was too much gain somewhere. At this point I was rating them 6.5/10. I kept changing songs and some things sounded kinda awesome but other music, even well mastered stuff just wasn’t sounding as good as it should. It sounded ever so slightly flawed. Is this what people meant by the timbre being a downgrade?

I checked settings. Apple Music wasn’t boosting or EQing. Sound enhancement was off. I’d recently got an m3 pro MacBook, so maybe the headphone amp is just a bad match? Is that really so much of a thing? I tried the one DAC I still have, creative g6. If anything it sounded worse. I tried my phone… eh, so quiet and I have to crank it so much I don’t spend much time here.

Then I returned to my MacBook Pro today, I check Apple Music settings again…oh… Streaming/download quality is on default… I guess I didn’t change this since I changed my laptop recently.

I flick it to lossless and immediately every issue I had with these headphones just melts away. They are immediately perfect.

I spend the next 3 hours re-listening to everything that sounded “broken” for the last 2 days and it was all not only fixed, it was better than I’d ever heard it.

I have never experienced or noticed such a difference between “decent” streaming quality and lossless in my life. It’s something I usually only set for piece of mind, but I’ve always assumed my ears are not critical enough to notice much of a difference. Until now, wow, these headphones are critical.

 

[Jagamov]

Got a pair of HD660S2 on Amazon when they hit £370.

Initially I was underwhelmed. (Spoiler alert, these headphones are fantastic, I’m an idiot).

Glad you got it sorted. Wait until you hear them using an amplifier with the power to actually drive these headphones. Your MacBook is just scratching the surface.

 

[rafaelo]

Got a pair of HD660S2 on Amazon when they hit £370.

Initially I was underwhelmed. (Spoiler alert, these headphones are fantastic, I’m an idiot)

Bass was better than the HD6XX, imaging was very impressive, and they really brought out the micro detail of many songs. But they just sounded metallic and shrill or grainy on many tracks.They sounded like the HD6XX with cranked worse “broken” sounding treble, and better bass. Vocals sounded shittier, surprisingly bad at times. Did I get a faulty pair I thought to myself? Some songs sounded “bloomy” or honky like there was too much gain somewhere. At this point I was rating them 6.5/10. I kept changing songs and some things sounded kinda awesome but other music, even well mastered stuff just wasn’t sounding as good as it should. It sounded ever so slightly flawed. Is this what people meant by the timbre being a downgrade?

I checked settings. Apple Music wasn’t boosting or EQing. Sound enhancement was off. I’d recently got an m3 pro MacBook, so maybe the headphone amp is just a bad match? Is that really so much of a thing? I tried the one DAC I still have, creative g6. If anything it sounded worse. I tried my phone… eh, so quiet and I have to crank it so much I don’t spend much time here.

Then I returned to my MacBook Pro today, I check Apple Music settings again…oh… Streaming/download quality is on default… I guess I didn’t change this since I changed my laptop recently.

I flick it to lossless and immediately every issue I had with these headphones just melts away. They are immediately perfect.

I spend the next 3 hours re-listening to everything that sounded “broken” for the last 2 days and it was all not only fixed, it was better than I’d ever heard it.

I have never experienced or noticed such a difference between “decent” streaming quality and lossless in my life. It’s something I usually only set for piece of mind, but I’ve always assumed my ears are not critical enough to notice much of a difference. Until now, wow, these headphones are critical.

Lossless makes a big difference to me with all my headphones not only 660s2.

I have essentially you tube music for free because i have youtube premium but i literally never use it. Forced to pay an extra subscription to listen music elsewhere ( apple music or tidal). I wish to work for me i would have saved a lot of money.

 

[drummerman1]

Glad you got it sorted. Wait until you hear them using an amplifier with the power to actually drive these headphones. Your MacBook is just scratching the surface.

Yes. The new Pro Macbooks, M1 Pro and forward, have improved Headphone stages. Apple did quite a bit to improve them.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/108351

When I thought my Chord Mojo 2 gave it's spoon up (it didn't, I was just a complete dumbass) I reverted back to the MB M2 Pro for a day and it really was a complete let down, relatively speaking. They may be good for laptop HP stages but really do not compare to something dedicated to headphone listening, even something as humble as the Chord.

It was like stepping from flat earth in to a wondrous 3D world.

 

[audiobile]

Glad you got it sorted. Wait until you hear them using an amplifier with the power to actually drive these headphones. Your MacBook is just scratching the surface.

Thanks. To be honest I've never heard much of a difference between different headphone jacks, DAC/Amps (outside of volume, or like a windows PC audio just being messed up with motherboard static). I always thought sound quality was 95%+ the headphones themselves.

...but then I guess I used to say the same thing about 256kbps AAC (vs) lossless... and I can say for the first time in my life now I definitely noticed that difference on quite a few tracks. So maybe I'll give a decent DAC/AMP a whirl at some point in the near future to see if I notice anything.

 

[Bassheadd]

Is there no way to adjust the headphones volume right from the cans themselves? That's too bad. I find the overall volume to be a bit lower than my Momentum 3s. Yes I'm using them with an amp too.

Right out of the box, these are so comfy. Wow. I may not even put them on a block for 2 days to loosen the band.

 

[Bassheadd]

Got a pair of HD660S2 on Amazon when they hit £370.

Initially I was underwhelmed. (Spoiler alert, these headphones are fantastic, I’m an idiot)

Bass was better than the HD6XX, imaging was very impressive, and they really brought out the micro detail of many songs. But they just sounded metallic and shrill or grainy on many tracks.They sounded like the HD6XX with cranked worse “broken” sounding treble, and better bass. Vocals sounded shittier, surprisingly bad at times. Did I get a faulty pair I thought to myself? Some songs sounded “bloomy” or honky like there was too much gain somewhere. At this point I was rating them 6.5/10. I kept changing songs and some things sounded kinda awesome but other music, even well mastered stuff just wasn’t sounding as good as it should. It sounded ever so slightly flawed. Is this what people meant by the timbre being a downgrade?

I checked settings. Apple Music wasn’t boosting or EQing. Sound enhancement was off. I’d recently got an m3 pro MacBook, so maybe the headphone amp is just a bad match? Is that really so much of a thing? I tried the one DAC I still have, creative g6. If anything it sounded worse. I tried my phone… eh, so quiet and I have to crank it so much I don’t spend much time here.

Then I returned to my MacBook Pro today, I check Apple Music settings again…oh… Streaming/download quality is on default… I guess I didn’t change this since I changed my laptop recently.

I flick it to lossless and immediately every issue I had with these headphones just melts away. They are immediately perfect.

I spend the next 3 hours re-listening to everything that sounded “broken” for the last 2 days and it was all not only fixed, it was better than I’d ever heard it.

I have never experienced or noticed such a difference between “decent” streaming quality and lossless in my life. It’s something I usually only set for piece of mind, but I’ve always assumed my ears are not critical enough to notice much of a difference. Until now, wow, these headphones are critical.

How many hours of music playback did you give them before you noticed the sound to really open up?

 

[sygnus21]

Is there no way to adjust the headphones volume right from the cans themselves? That's too bad. I find the overall volume to be a bit lower than my Momentum 3s. Yes I'm using them with an amp too.

If you find the overall volume too low, you might want to look at what you're connecting the headphones to as low volume indicates your amp isn't powerful enough to drive the 300 Ohm phones to begin with. Sorry.

Anyway, I post here cause currently Amazon USA is selling the headphones for $399 USD. I'm seriously considering getting a pair, but I already bought the HD800S in Feb.

 

[Bassheadd]

If you find the overall volume too low, you might want to look at what you're connecting the headphones to as low volume indicates your amp isn't powerful enough to drive the 300 Ohm phones to begin with. Sorry.

Anyway, I post here cause currently Amazon USA is selling the headphones for $399 USD. I'm seriously considering getting a pair, but I already bought the HD800S in Feb.

I'm using the S.M.S.L C-200 amp. Just got the amp last week. I was told this amp is powerful enough to run the 660s2.

Im finding the volume to be loud enough but i have to turn the amp a bit higher compared to what I was running the volume at with my Momentum 3's. With a lot of songs with this DAC and the Momentum 3's, I only had to run the amp at 65% volume with lots of head room left.

For some reason I assumed these cans had volume control on the headphones itself. Looks like they don't.

 

[Jagamov]

I'm using the S.M.S.L C-200 amp. Just got the amp last week. I was told this amp is powerful enough to run the 660s2.

Im finding the volume to be loud enough but i have to turn the amp a bit higher compared to what I was running the volume at with my Momentum 3's. With a lot of songs with this DAC and the Momentum 3's, I only had to run the amp at 65% volume with lots of head room left.

For some reason I assumed these cans had volume control on the headphones itself. Looks like they don't.

Have you adjusted the Gain on your amp? Are you using the 4.4mm balanced cable and jack?

Your Momentum 3's are only 100 ohms. The S2's are 300 ohms. Thats the reason for the volume differences.

Why would you assume non-wireless headphones would have a volume control?

 

[sygnus21]

I'm using the S.M.S.L C-200 amp. Just got the amp last week. I was told this amp is powerful enough to run the 660s2.

Im finding the volume to be loud enough but i have to turn the amp a bit higher compared to what I was running the volume at with my Momentum 3's. With a lot of songs with this DAC and the Momentum 3's, I only had to run the amp at 65% volume with lots of head room left.

For some reason I assumed these cans had volume control on the headphones itself. Looks like they don't.

The only cans I know of with "volume" controls are wireless. I know of no serious non-wireless headphones with volume controls, especially quality ones like the 660S2.

And sorry, but I've zero idea were you ever thought you saw any Sennheiser non-wireless headphones with a volume control???

Your Momentum 3's are only 100 ohms. The S2's are 300 ohms. Thats the reason for the volume differences.

Meaning your 100 Ohm Momentums are more sensitive to volume voltage, than the 300 Ohm 660S2. Nothing earth shattering there. However, it shouldn't be that huge of a difference. So, for example, if you have the momentums at volume 5 of 10, you might need maybe 6/6.5 of 10 for the 660S2.

 

[Bassheadd]

Have you adjusted the Gain on your amp? Are you using the 4.4mm balanced cable and jack?

Your Momentum 3's are only 100 ohms. The S2's are 300 ohms. Thats the reason for the volume differences.

Why would you assume non-wireless headphones would have a volume control?

The only cans I know of with "volume" controls are wireless. I know of no serious non-wireless headphones with volume controls, especially quality ones like the 660S2.

And sorry, but I've zero idea were you ever thought you saw any Sennheiser non-wireless headphones with a volume control???


Meaning your 100 Ohm Momentums are more sensitive to volume voltage, than the 300 Ohm 660S2. Nothing earth shattering there. However, it shouldn't be that huge of a difference. So, for example, if you have the momentums at volume 5 of 10, you might need maybe 6/6.5 of 10 for the 660S2.

Yes I adjusted the gain on my amp, seems fine now. Have put on about 18 hours so far of music playback. Hovering between 60-75 on the volume knob on all the songs so far that I've thrown at it. Seems normal I think. From what I see my C-200 amp has low gain and high gain, I have it on high gain.

300ohm basically requires 3x more power to drive them vs my 100ohm Momentum 3s?

Ive always had BT headphones, so I guess Im just used to having volume control right on the headphones. For only being 100ohm, the Momentum 3's go ridiculously loud.